Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,
He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities,
The chastisement of our peace was laid upon him.
With his stripes we are healed.
The Lord has laid on him the iniquities of us all,
He is brought as a lamb to slaughter.
(Isaiah 53)
Enduring the unspeakable suffering of Gethsemane, exhausted and bathed in blood and sweat from the agony, betrayed by one and forsaken by the rest who loved Him (Matt 26:56), Jesus was arrested as a thief in the night and forced to walk to Caiaphas' Palace, to the Antonia Fortress, to Herod's palace, and back to Antonia Fortress. In the process he had been without food for twelve hours, slapped, beaten with fists, palms and rods and mocked and scourged. Treated like the basest of criminals and betrayed for the price of a slave yet innocent of all the charges they could bring against Him, He subjected Himself to the cruelest and most unjust of all trials and deaths, for the greater good of all who in the realms above had chosen Him to pay the ransom for their souls and to bring them to life eternal.
Accused unjustly for blasphemy during an illegal nightly court held by the Sanhedrin, Jesus was taken to Pilate, the Roman procurator who had the power to sanction death, the power which the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court of justice and the supreme legislative council at Jerusalem, did not possess. The Sanhedrin condemned Jesus to death for blasphemy but knowing that blasphemy would bear no weight with the Roman law, they accused Him of treason against the Roman State saying He claimed He was the King of the Jews, unwilling to pay tribute to Caesar. Not being able to find any fault in Jesus (Luke 23:4) and attempting to pass the judgment of death onto Herod and the Jewish people with no success, Pilate violated his own best instincts and indulged his hypocrisy by condemning Jesus to death. Pilate feared the Jewish people because of many minor acts of violence, extortion and cruelty which the Jews held against him. 'He realised that his tenure was insecure, and he dreaded exposure. Such wrongs had he wrought that when he would have done good, he was deterred through cowardly fear of the accusing past' (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pp 648-649). Making it clear to this man of hypocrisy that it is not really within his power to save or take away His life, the Saviour just about exonerated him from His imminent death by telling him: "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world" (John 18:37).
"Reproach [had] broken [his] heart; and [he was] full of heaviness: and [he] looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but [he] found none."
(Psalm 69:20)
"Stripped, He was raised on the cross with a mocking sign over His head: 'JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS'. As He hung in anguish, the rulers and people gaped and cursed and condemned Him, taunting: 'He saved others; let him save himself' (Luke 23:35). Through the anguish, He had only loving words. To His mother, Mary, who must have felt the pangs of near-death in her own body, it was concern that she be cared for. To the thief who would repent, He gave hope. At noon the heavens grew black for three hours, as if the universe itself were weeping for the agony of the Creator. In that time all the infinite agonies and merciless pains of Gethsemane returned, and His Father's spirit itself withdrew that the victory might be His. At the ninth hour, 3:00 pm, 'Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying....My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? (Matt 27:46). In that eerie mid-afternoon darkness, someone ran and filled a sponge with vinegar. Having received the vinegar, Jesus said: 'Father, it is finished, thy will is done' (JST Matt 27:54). As He died, the veil of the temple was rent, and the earth quaked and rocks were rent as if to say with a nearby centurion, 'Truly this man was the son of God' (Mark 15:39). (Scot and Maurine Proctor, Lesson 26, To This End Was I Born, Meridian Magazine)
We may ask ourselves why the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane alone did not suffice as the Atonement for the sins of mankind? Why all this emphasis on the shedding of blood? Why is the Atonement incomplete without it? Why do we need to dwell with such emphasis, and so repetitively, on Christ's death and the manner in which it was executed? The reason is startling and compelling: "Where salvation is concerned, we are dealing with life and death; we are born into mortality so that we may have the privilege of dying and coming forth in immortality. In our search for salvation, we are dealing with mortal life and the natural death; we are dealing with immortality and eternal life; we are seeking to learn how mortality becomes immortality, and how men, having bowed to the natural death, can yet come forth and gain eternal life. To crystallize in our minds and to dramatize before our eyes what is involved in all this, the Lord has chosen blood as the symbol of both life and death" (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p. 259). It was never the flesh of the sacrificial animals that was required for mortal men to understand the infinite sacrifice that would bring life eternal, but the blood. Because life is in the blood (Lev 17:14), blood is the element and symbol of life, thus the necessity for the blood atonement, for as the shedding of man's blood brings death, the shedding of Christ's blood brings life. Thus the blood atonement becomes the symbol of eternal life.
It was through the agony of Gethsemane and the blood Atonement of Calvary that the Saviour could offer freedom and eternal life to those who languished in spirit prison following His crucifixion. With what joyful hope they must have received word that they could be freed from the prison of death, of hell and of endless torment now that the sacrifice was complete. That they would, through repentence and acceptance of His gospel be 'free from the sorrow of sin, free from the chains of hell, free from that spiritual death which is to be dead as pertaining to the things of righteousness - all this is part of the glorious doctrine of salvation for the dead, and it includes the fact that our Lord ministered personally to the spirits in prison' (McConkie, The Promised Messiah, p 240). It was of these captives that Zechariah prophesied when he spoke of 'prisoners of hope', that the Lord their God would save them 'by the blood of thy covenant', meaning the gospel covenant, which would only have effect through the shedding of the blood of Christ (Zech. 9:11,12). With what gratitude those in spirit prison must have bowed before Him knowing the atoning blood had been spilt, the mercy extended, the justice satisfied.
And what of us who had not yet been born, who were valiant in our testimonies of Jesus? Could we have been been with the departed spirits of the just who had rejoiced to hear of the accomplished sacrifice and had gathered to welcome the triumphant Saviour back into their midst? If we shouted for joy at the time of creation (Job 38:6,7), we must have shouted for joy at the time of redemption: "And there were gathered together in one place an innumerable company of the spirits of the just, who had been faithful in the testimony of Jesus while they lived in mortality; And who had offered sacrifice in the similitude of the great sacrifice of the Son of God, and had suffered tribulation in their Redeemer's name. All these had departed the mortal life, firm in the hope of a glorious resurrection, through the grace of God the Father and his Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. I beheld that they were filled with the joy and gladness, and were rejoicing together because the day of their deliverance was at hand (D&C 138:12-15). How joyous we must have been knowing that godhood which we so valiantly fought for was now within our reach. For if the chosen Saviour had overcome the world, the power would be ours to do likewise. And so 'trailing clouds of glory' we each took our turn, with eagerness and joy, coming to a fallen world to work out our salvation through the grace of Him who has paved the way, Immanuel, The Lord of Hosts, The Lord of Glory, Eternal King, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
"Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel........Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness.. Let the woods and all the threes of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever!"
(D&C 128:22)
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